After watching the Grizz-Clippers game, Mother’s Day dinner took precedence over basketball and the Miami-Indiana matchup got backburnered in favor of food. Figuring the Heat would do well at home, I focused my attention on mi madre and figured I’d catch up with ESPN highlights later. Then, the updates started rolling in that Chris Bosh suffered an “abdominal strain” during a dunk late in the first half. The Heat rolled on to win Game 1 by a score of 95-86 but may have lost Bosh, who’s listed as “out indefinitely.”

So what the hell is an abdominal strain and how could it keep a player sidelined for so long? Tinsely seemed to understand as soon as it happened yesterday but he was more hysterical than Florida when James died on Good Times and getting a clear answer was challenging. So, I hit the Internuts today and found this quick interview with ESPN’s Stephania Bell, a board certified orthopedic clinical specialist, who gave a concise breakdown of Bosh’s injury.

Chris Bosh seemed to grab his groin after the injury, but it’s being called an abdominal strain. What’s the difference?

Bell: The groin is one of the inner-thigh adductor muscles and the lower abdominal muscle is the rectus -– the “six-pack” muscle — but what’s important is that they all attach to the pubic bone along with the oblique muscles. That’s the issue. If he partially tore the muscle down by where it attaches, that is a huge problem.

These things sound tricky, but can we get any sense of the severity based on how he looked after the injury?

It’s hard to say and I wouldn’t venture to guess on a diagnosis based entirely on video. You can’t tell the magnitude or degree, but the more interesting factor is the way he looked, the way he grabbed, it has the potential to be something that’s problematic going forward. When you see a guy grabbing at the muscle and going down to his knees, it certainly suggests it’s more than a mild partial tear. It’s not like it was only sore after the game. It took him to his knees and then he had to leave.

So what does a strain mean? What does it limit?

A strain could be anything, really — mild, moderate or severe — we don’t know. It doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t try to play, but it would certainly compromise his ability to run, jump, anything that stretches that muscle, anything that requires power. If it’s down low near where it attaches, essentially every time that muscle contracts you’re going to get a sharp pain that makes it virtually impossible to power to your legs and your trunk can’t be strong. They’re going to be very open (with the timetable). That’s a fair thing to do right now, because usually there is a lot of uncertainty day-to-day. Can he function? Can he get on the court and be serviceable? They’re not wrong to leave it open.

Bosh is expected to miss the rest of the series with Indiana, which obviously means Roy Hibbert’s going into Game 2 looking to capitalize. Since no one on Miami can match up against him, the Pacers should at least have Hibbert touch the ball every time he’s on the court. The series odds may have evened out a bit but Miami should still be able to advance to the next round. After that, the Heat’s fortunes are up in the air since Bosh may miss the entire postseason.

After Derrick Rose went down, they had a clear path to the Eastern Conference Finals and played the favorite to take the crown. Now, LeBron and Wade will be looked at to shoulder even more of the load if the team is to win it all. The remaining two of the big three stepped up huge in the second half of yesterday’s game (LeBron-Wade 42, Pacers 38), but can they lead the team to the mountaintop?

I’m not gonna lie, this really hurts Miami, Bosh was the only tall body they had on the team. I’m not sayin Pacers win the series, but this is going to really wear down D-Wade, and put to much pressure on Norbel.

I don’t like the Heat but injuries could very well derail their championship hopes. They now have nothing in the way of stretching the floor from either the 4 or 5. Erik could move LeBron to the 4 but I think that’s asking too much….gotta bang and rebound and then score 35 points and dish out 10 dimes a game.

And yall talking about the Lakers and OKC knowing damn well the SPURS will represent the West this year.